Romney: ‘No One’s Ever Asked To See My Birth Certificate’

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event at Watson Truck and Supply in Hobbs, New Mexico, on August 23, 2012. Romney is in New Mexico to unveil his energy plan, which aims at energy independence for North America by 2020. AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GettyImages)Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event at Watson Truck and Supply in Hobbs, N.M., on Aug. 23, 2012. (credit: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

At a rally in the suburbs of Detroit, Romney told a crowd of about 5,000 that he and his wife were happy to be back near their childhood home. “They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

The remark was a clear reference to the discredited claims that Obama was not born in the United States and thus ineligible to be president. Hawaii officials have repeatedly verified Obama’s citizenship, and courts have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue. The Obama campaign decried the remark, saying Romney was embracing “the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them.”

Top Romney adviser Kevin Madden tried to walk the comments back shortly after, saying: “The governor has always said, and has repeatedly said, he believes the president was born here in the United States.”

Madden said Romney was simply drawing attention to the fact that Michigan, where he was campaigning, was the state where he himself was born and raised.

But Romney’s comments for the moment aligned him again with a conservative fringe that has pursued the issue. Among the most prominent Romney backers who have questioned Obama’s birth in Hawaii have been developer Donald Trump.

“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them,” said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Gov. Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.”

Madden said Romney wasn’t intentionally making a reference to the questions about Obama’s birth certificate.

Romney was campaigning with his running mate, Paul Ryan, and with his wife Ann in Michigan, a state where Obama has been leading but that is where Romney’s father, George, made his name both as a top auto executive and as governor.

Obama has been dogged throughout his presidency by question about his birthplace. He released a long form copy of his birth certificate last year, showing he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Trump, who briefly

Romney has been very careful to steer clear of the birth certificate issue, even while enthusiastically accepting support from tycoon Donald Trump. Whenever he was asked about the issue in interviews, Romney always demurred and said it was a settled issue.

Among a segment of the conservative, anti-Obama movement, the issue is a rallying cry that continues to persist despite evidence to the contrary.

For Romney, raising the issue at this point runs contrary to his campaigns goal of boosting his support among independent and undecided voters, for whom Obama’s birth certificate is presumably a non-issue.